Materials

Miniature Painting

Islamic miniature painting is generally understood to mean small paintings that are or once were part of a manuscript, used as a frontispiece or an illustration for a text. Drawings and individual paintings have, however, also been preserved. They were either sketches or were intended to be placed as independent works of art in an album.

The miniatures usually had a paper base, but cardboard and in rare cases cotton or silk cloth were also used. The brilliant colors are usually opaque.

The oldest preserved miniature paintings were made in around the year 1000, but not until around 1200 were they found in larger numbers. Islamic miniature painting is often categorized rather summarily into four regional schools: the Arab, the Persian, the Indian, and the Ottoman Turkish.

Miniature from a copy of Firdawsi’s Shahnama. “Kay Khusraw Marches to Gudarz’s Rescue”

Iran, Lahijan; 1494
Leaf: 34.5 × 24.5 cm

The ways the figures are depicted in this miniature justify the manuscript’s designation: the “Big Head Shahnama.”

Kay Khusraw (with a whip), his page on foot (with an axe and a pointed hat), and the heavily armed Iranian cavalry and infantry are painted in a highly monumental and original manner. The cropping of the picture is unconventional, whereas the bold and at times garish colors are typical of the entire manuscript and to some extent of Turkmen painting in general.

The miniature is filled with realistic details – weapons, shields, armor, and various types of helmets – but also has more special features, such as the pennant painted with a dragon and the dragon ensign with the inscription “Allah,” reversed.